The invention relates to a device for mounting equipment to an agricultural implement, and more particularly, to an assembly for mounting a plurality of application heads to an agricultural implement for the application of fertilizer, herbicides and other farm chemicals to row crops.
A row bander is a particular type of application head for applying agricultural chemicals to row crops. A row bander provides for selected directional spraying of agricultural chemicals on row crops. When a row bander is used in combination with an agricultural implement such as a row crop cultivator, one achieves desirable operating efficiencies.
For example, a farmer may plant row crops in 30 inches wide strips with each row separated by a 30 inches wide strip of soil. In applying an agricultural chemical such as weed killer, the row banders are adjusted so as to spray a path that is about 7 and 1/2 inches wide on each side of the row crop. The cultivator tines are positioned so as to cultivate the mediate 15 inch strip that exists between adjacent 7 and 1/2 inch wide paths sprayed with agricultural chemical. The result is that the 30 inches wide strip between adjacent rows is worked in one pass. A fuel savings occurs because the field can be worked in one pass to complete the job as opposed to two passes (one for cultivating, and one for applying agricultural chemicals). Further, because the cultivator is used to work the mediate 15 inch wide strip, only two 7 and 1/2 inch wide paths of chemical are required as opposed to a 30 inches wide path of chemical per row in the absence of cultivators. This results in a significant savings in the volume of chemical utilized to treat a particular field.
It is apparent that an application head such as a row bander provides meaningful operating advantages. However, heretofore there has been no advantageous way to mount row banders to an agricultural implement such as a cultivator. In the past, row banders have been mounted to the front of the tractor pulling the implement. There have existed several problems associated with the front mounting of row banders.
During the working of a field with a cultivator, the operator's attention is focused to the rear of the tractor where the cultivators are located. This is done to ensure that the cultivators work the area between the rows of crops rather than divert from the intended path resulting in destruction of the row crop. In a field that does not contain perfectly straight row crops, the fact that the operator's attention must be focused to the rear of the tractor results in the front mounted row banders sometimes not being correctly positioned relative to the row crop. The result of which is the inadequate application of agricultural chemicals to the row crops.
Another drawback with front mounting of row banders is the difficulty in viewing the spray heads while working the field. The advantage in viewing the spray heads during working is that any malfunction, such as clogging or the like, can be relatively quickly determined, and the problem corrected. This is not the case if the application heads are front mounted.
In using a front-mounted application head such as a rope wick, the chemical is wiped off onto the undesirable plant (e.g. ragweed, volunteer corn etc.) A drawback of the front-mounted, rope wick is that the tractor and implement contact the undesirable plants after the application of the chemical thereto. The disadvantage with this is that the tractor and implement are now contaminated with chemical, and consequently will wipe off some of the agricultural chemical on the row crops. This is an undesirable result.
There are times when row crops requiring the same agricultural chemical are of different heights. One primary cause of this is due to variations in planting dates. In the past, it has been difficult to adjust the height of the row bander or other application heads in the field. The result of this is a time consuming field operation to adjust the height or a return to the barn area where the operator is still faced with a relatively time-consuming operation to adjust the height of the row bander.
In certain situations in which a rope wick is utilized, it would be particularly desirable to be able to adjust the height of the rope wick above that of the crops. A particularly appropriate example is in the case of volunteer corn in a soy bean field. At the later stages of crop development, volunteer corn is significantly taller than the soy beans. The advantage of providing an assembly which would mount an application head such as a rope wick to a cultivator above the soy beans and at the same height as the corn would be great.
In some fields the presence of weeds and other unwanted plants is localized. It would thus be advantageous to provide in, addition to an improved mounting assembly, an agricultural chemical delivery system which would provide for the localized application of chemicals. This would provide the feature of some portions of a row crop field being cultivated only, and other portions of the row crop field being both cultivated and treated with agricultural chemicals.
In reduced tillage or so-called "no till" fields, the operator builds a ridge in the soil prior to planting. Typically this ridge is formed in the fall. In the spring when the field is planted, a planter is utilized to plant the seed in this ridge so that a field can be worked without any plowing, discing or the like. In a "no till" operation, it would be advantageous to provide an assembly for mounting application heads to a planter so that appropriate agricultural chemicals can be applied to the field as it is planted.